Wednesday, May 18, 2016

A Paranoid World

I don't understand why this transgender issue a problem. If a woman dressed as a guy walks into a public men's room and has a seat in a stall, I could care less what they are hiding under their knickers. Being a guy, I have never been in a ladies' room but I can assume that there are only stalls in there for everyone to use. So this situation would never come up with a guy using a women's restroom either.

To every guy who is paranoid about this situation, I can tell you that you have probably shared a public restroom with a transgender person at least once in your life, and your young daughters have probably shared one as well. Ladies, I will say the same to you. No one has ever been attacked by a transgender person in a public restroom, and I doubt they ever will.
This situation has come up for two reasons. The first is that some uptight politician or activist somewhere needed to be appalled about something and they chose this to be appalled about. I think that is pretty horrible. But thanks to social media, it is now a full-blown problem with real victims and everything.

The other reason this is an issue is because it involves locker rooms, especially in schools. The people who are fighting for transgender rights are insisting that transgender people be allowed to use the showering areas of the locker rooms they most identify with as well as bathrooms. I am sorry, but to me that does not fly. I am not insensitive, but I may be guilty of being a bit old fashioned. There has to be a better solution to that situation.

But none of that is really the reason why I think that this whole transgender thing will blow up in society's face. I don't know why, but even rational people who I respect a great deal are living in this Utopian society where people follow rules. Some of these people are the same people who argue that gun laws are useless because criminals don't follow laws. If you believe that line of logic when it comes to guns, then you have to believe it when it comes to locker rooms.

"No guy has ever thrown on a wig and slipped into a ladies' locker room before and caused trouble, so why would it start now?"

I know that what I am about to say will be hard for most people to understand, but sick people love challenges. This sort of controversy gets the gears going in the minds of sick people who would have never thought it was possible before. From the moment we are all born, we are conditioned to know that we use the public restroom that corresponds to our natural parts. I understand that transgender people have a different view on that concept, but that does not change the other 99.7 percent of the population that are not transgender.

This is just the beginning to the paranoia and twisted things that we will see now that this whole debate is out on the table. This really happened, and this will happen again and again all over the country. It is only a matter of time before the stories about perverts throwing on wigs and trying to use the ladies' locker rooms are going to start coming out.

The American public is directly tied to social media. When social media creates a cause, that cause affects millions of people in this country. When walls that society has put up for good reason are brought down, it changes everything. I constantly get told that I am an insensitive jerk for saying these things, but please note that nothing I am saying talks about transgender people. It is the other 99.7 percent of the population I am worried about.

Internet tough guys are now posting memes about knocking out the teeth of a guy who follows their little daughter into the ladies' room. Guess what tough guy? There is a good chance that it has already happened once or twice and you never knew it, and no one got hurt. But now that this situation is red hot on social media, someone will get hurt.

We live in a paranoid world. Does it bother me that 0.3 percent of the population wants special treatment? No, it really does not. If you are going to quote me on anything, be sure to quote me on that. But I have lost all faith in humanity and, at the same time, I cannot help but wonder how everyone else still maintains their faith when humanity shows again and again that it falters regularly.

People can pee wherever they want. However, for me, I draw the line at allowing biological boys to shower with biological girls because the boys say that they feel like a girl. I am sorry, but that bothers me and it would bother me more if I had daughters.

But if people don't think that this whole situation is going to get way out of hand quickly and cause someone to get hurt, then they are naive. Mankind (especially Americans) does not have a good history at being compassionate and tolerant. What makes everyone think that this situation is different?

There needs to be a new solution to this problem that does not involve allowing what paranoid social media users perceive to be open season on young girls and women. I am all for making people feel comfortable in their daily lives, but there has to be a limit and someone has to remember that social media has a way of making everything 100 times worse.

There has to be a better solution...and there has to be one before someone gets hurt.

George N Root III is a Lockport resident who has probably shared more than one public men's room with a transgender person and really does not care. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3 or send him a message at georgenroot3@gmail.com.